Anyone already post that paper FP will be gone at MK as of 1/14?

[tlh0726]

For our family, it makes our decision to let the dust settle and skip the 4 main parks a lot easier to accept


After we use our reward points to purchase our AP's for the waterparks/Disney quest I told DH we may just bank our points and give Disneyland a try.

 

[mummabear]

AAAARGGHHH! That's our arrival day, frickinfrackinfudgesicles. I was really hoping we'd avoid the MK inclusion.

Thankfully, it seems to still be lower crowds. I'm just going to get everyone moving in the morning, even though I promised I wouldn't push rope drop.

My chiropractor just returned and they did not enjoy MBs. Lots of standing in line trying to get them fixed. The FP+ situation was a damper, too, but they were also there during high crowds.

OT but frickinfrackinfudgesicles that will be immediately added to be repertoire

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

Interesting. I thought the system they had people loved too?

People do love the system.

But it all comes down to dollars and cents.

People standing in line aren't spending money on food and merchandise.

And if you know how many people are going to be at a ride at specific time window, you can staff accordingly. This saves money by not having too many people working a ride during a slow time, and makes sure you have enough staff to run the ride efficiently during a busy time (again getting guests out of line and in to shops and restaurants).

 

[mummabear]

The fat lady is warming up her voice now....Lol.

Three of the four phases of MM+ that affect ticketing have taken place.

First was the "test" of magic bands at resorts. The test never ended, it's now permanent.

Second was/is the removal of KTTW cards at the onsite resorts. The "test" will never end, it will evolve into a roll out as well.

Third is the removal of FP- from the parks systematically. Yes you guessed it, this "test" will not end and just evolve into a permanent status.

Fourth, here comes the fat lady onstage, will be when Disney announces that they will begin selling additional FP+ reservations by tier for an additional fee. It's a common sense progression, keyed to make Disney more revenue by changing from an all you can eat buffet style of ticketing (FP-) to a new digital a la carte E ticket system (FP+) whereby you pay for how ever many you want over and above what you are given with the purchase of your park ticket.

Not rocket science here, just common business sense. Wait for it, and enjoy the opera. She has a beautiful voice...

Well I agree that this makes a lot of sense I swear I have read a quote from Disney saying this will not happen.
For me personally this would be a huge negative against Disney if they did, one thing I have always appreciated about Disney parks is that while nothing is cheap, I have never felt ripped off or nickel and dimed like at other parks. While you can buy Photopass + they let you use your own camera for the character photos, they don't have a front of the line pass, the merchandise and food are reasonably priced this has lead us to feel it is a good value for money place (and frankly in our happy daze we spend more then then we do at other parks). If they went this way it would really change my perception of them

 

[mummabear]

 

[mummabear]

In all my frets about FP+, I still believed deep down that, when paper fastpasses left MK, the number of FP+ for that park would increase to four or five. Because, unlike the other parks, there are plenty of rides that people want to fastpass. I was willing to accept tiers in exchange for the increase. Most of the fastpasses I want are not top tier.

Seriously, three fastpasses at MK??? My days of fastpassing my kids' favorite rides and MY mountains are gone for good???

I agree. I honestly do not understand how they can add loads of extra attractions to the fastpass system (many of which I think are brilliant like the meet and greets) but then lower the amount I can book.
It would make some sense if they were saying you couldn't use all 5 one 1 ride, tiering them even makes some sense, hell they could even have rules staggering the timing so you still spend hours in the park not have have 5 back to back bookings then leave but I cant get my head around the fact that the have increased the capacity on the FP network but reduced your allocation.
I was waiting for you can pre book 3 but then book more in the park (with similar rules to pulling them now).
I was really hoping they wouldn't but somewhat expected the amount you could pre book to be linked to the tier of resort you booked (glad they haven't done that-so far at least)

 

[mom2rtk]

I agree. I honestly do not understand how they can add loads of extra attractions to the fastpass system (many of which I think are brilliant like the meet and greets) but then lower the amount I can book.

It makes sense if they are trying to ration high demand ride slots.

 

[morethananyonex]

Call me delusional, but I don't think this is the final version of the system. It can't be. There's just so many unappealing aspects of it. I also don't think it makes sense for Disney to roll out a system that discourages people to spend $50 extra on their tickets for park hoppers.

I am hoping that with the elimination of FP- at all the parks, Disney can tweak FP+ to allow for more flexibility once everybody is using the system. The whole purpose of the original FP program was to keep people out of the lines and spending money. How the heck am I supposed to mindlessly spend money with my MB like they want me to if I suddenly have to wait in more lines?

 

[mummabear]

Yep--we're offsite for our trip next week and going to MK the day after the change. Really psyched to be standing in line at a FP+ kiosk at park opening scrounging for FP+ leftovers instead of going to an attraction.

It will be interesting to see if the cost of the value resorts increases. We booked on site as the price difference was not large and if occupancy increases as a result of this then its likely prices will follow....

 

[mummabear]

Call me delusional, but I don't think this is the final version of the system. It can't be. There's just so many unappealing aspects of it. I also don't think it makes sense for Disney to roll out a system that discourages people to spend $50 extra on their tickets for park hoppers.

I am hoping that with the elimination of FP- at all the parks, Disney can tweak FP+ to allow for more flexibility once everybody is using the system. The whole purpose of the original FP program was to keep people out of the lines and spending money. How the heck am I supposed to mindlessly spend money with my MB like they want me to if I suddenly have to wait in more lines?

I just think at this point they need to come out with it-What is the system? People are sick of not knowing how their vacation will be effected, the uncertainty makes planning difficult

 

[#1DopeyFan]

And if you know how many people are going to be at a ride at specific time window, you can staff accordingly. This saves money by not having too many people working a ride during a slow time, and makes sure you have enough staff to run the ride efficiently during a busy time (again getting guests out of line and in to shops and restaurants).

According to this, you should be in line LESS? So why is everyone upset? I mean, I understand what you're saying...just not sure who's completely off base then. WDW or every person is ticked about standing in lines now.
(I'm still neutral at this point, lol.)

 

[mom2rtk]

Call me delusional, but I don't think this is the final version of the system. It can't be. There's just so many unappealing aspects of it. I also don't think it makes sense for Disney to roll out a system that discourages people to spend $50 extra on their tickets for park hoppers.

I am hoping that with the elimination of FP- at all the parks, Disney can tweak FP+ to allow for more flexibility once everybody is using the system. The whole purpose of the original FP program was to keep people out of the lines and spending money. How the heck am I supposed to mindlessly spend money with my MB like they want me to if I suddenly have to wait in more lines?

I'm sure it's not the final form. But once they started down this path, they had no choice but to play it as conservative as possible. If you give 4, then have to downgrade to 3, it's just a PR mess. Remember how slots started out tiered, then went away from that, then changed back? It would have been much easier on everyone if they had just stayed that way, but opened up the parks they knew they could definitely keep untiered.

They apparently were not able to program the kiosks to disallow double dipping. Now that they will have disabled all the machines in the near future, they can start gathering some more "real world" data without that complication. Then I imagine we'll see some fine tuning.

 

[TLSnell1981]

People do love the system.

But it all comes down to dollars and cents.

People standing in line aren't spending money on food and merchandise.

Well, we spent a lot more $$$$, before dining prices increased and quality/choice decreased. The prices are unreasonable, unacceptable and ridiculous. IMO I'm no longer impressed with the merchandise either. Guess, I'll save more money by eliminating park hoppers and reducing the frequency of our visits.

 

[dayvewc]

According to this, you should be in line LESS? So why is everyone upset? I mean, I understand what you're saying...just not sure who's completely off base then. WDW or every person is ticked about standing in lines now.
(I'm still neutral at this point, lol.)

I think it is a matter of who you talk to as to whether they are upset. Collectively, some people will be in line less, but some will be in line more.

For people who are accustomed to utilizing FP- to its fullest extent, they will not be able to collect as many as before. This will lead them to standing in line more (assuming everyone rides the same number of total rides per day). But since they are not riding the FP line now, someone else is riding in their place, shortening that persons time in line.

It turns out that at the end of the day, the amount of time people have spent in lines (with the assumption that the total number of rides ridden stays the same) will be exactly the same. Just that by shifting people to different rides and restricting how many FP's individuals can get, the average amount of time individual people stand in line goes down.

I can understand the goal. I do not make judgments pro or con.

 

[morethananyonex]

I just think at this point they need to come out with it-What is the system? People are sick of not knowing how their vacation will be effected, the uncertainty makes planning difficult

I totally agree. It's frustrating.

We're going in about 3 weeks, and although I speculated that we would not have FP- access, it sucked not to know for sure. I'm not even upset we don't have it, I would just rather know where this is going and when things are going away (or starting) so we can plan accordingly.

I feel like with the timing of my trip, we're in that "sweet" spot where we don't have FP- access but FP+ won't be tweaked yet. Yay...

I'm sure it's not the final form. But once they started down this path, they had no choice but to play it as conservative as possible. If you give 4, then have to downgrade to 3, it's just a PR mess. Remember how slots started out tiered, then went away from that, then changed back? It would have been much easier on everyone if they had just stayed that way, but opened up the parks they knew they could definitely keep untiered.

They apparently were not able to program the kiosks to disallow double dipping. Now that they will have disabled all the machines in the near future, they can start gathering some more "real world" data without that complication. Then I imagine we'll see some fine tuning.

But for the record, PR mess is how I would describe this rollout, with or without downgrading the experience. Don't take anything away (FP-) until the new system is fully ready to go.

I have faith that in a couple years this system will be awesome and many of us who don't like it now will be singing it's praises. It's just frustrating for those of us who have trips planned during the testing and tweaking stages. An awesome system in the future doesn't make the limits placed during February 2014 any easier for us.

 

[mom2rtk]

But for the record, PR mess is how I would describe this rollout, with or without downgrading the experience. Don't take anything away (FP-) until the new system is fully ready to go.

I have faith that in a couple years this system will be awesome and many of us who don't like it now will be singing it's praises. It's just frustrating for those of us who have trips planned during the testing and tweaking stages. An awesome system in the future doesn't make the limits placed during February 2014 any easier for us.

I agree. It appears they just couldn't resist making promises to the stockholders then had to push forward before they were really ready.

 

[FlipHipster]

I'm sure it's not the final form. But once they started down this path, they had no choice but to play it as conservative as possible. If you give 4, then have to downgrade to 3, it's just a PR mess. Remember how slots started out tiered, then went away from that, then changed back? It would have been much easier on everyone if they had just stayed that way, but opened up the parks they knew they could definitely keep untiered.

They apparently were not able to program the kiosks to disallow double dipping. Now that they will have disabled all the machines in the near future, they can start gathering some more "real world" data without that complication. Then I imagine we'll see some fine tuning.

I too feel like most of what is going on is intended to limit the impact from all the glitches. It would seem to better to start everyone out with less and then offer more vs. the other way around because you couldn't support it.

 

[GeorgiaHoo]

AAAARGGHHH! That's our arrival day, frickinfrackinfudgesicles. I was really hoping we'd avoid the MK inclusion.

Thankfully, it seems to still be lower crowds. I'm just going to get everyone moving in the morning, even though I promised I wouldn't push rope drop.

My chiropractor just returned and they did not enjoy MBs. Lots of standing in line trying to get them fixed. The FP+ situation was a damper, too, but they were also there during high crowds.

FYI, we've gone in mid-January a couple of times and while I'm not a fan of the FP+ change we generally didn't need FP at MK except for during midday. If you arrive at RD you should be able to ride just about anything with minimal wait.

 

[mom2rtk]

I too feel like most of what is going on is intended to limit the impact from all the glitches. It would seem to better to start everyone out with less and then offer more vs. the other way around because you couldn't support it.

It would just stink to have a long-awaited trip happen during this "careful" phase. It's sad, but for once, I'm glad to be tickerless.

 

[morethananyonex]

It would just stink to have a long-awaited trip happen during this "careful" phase. It's sad, but for once, I'm glad to be tickerless.

Yup, that's us.

Right at the point where FP- ends but FP+ likely will not be touched yet.